Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, went on the offensive against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a press conference this week, flipping the script on the mayor's own arrest threats against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Standing before reporters ahead of Netanyahu's planned trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, Danon declared that if anyone deserves to be taken into custody, it is Mamdani, accusing him of inciting unrest and, in Danon's words, "actually collaborating with the enemy" of the United States. The remark came moments after Danon dismissed Mamdani's claim that he could or should arrest Netanyahu as ridiculous, arguing the mayor has no legal standing to act. He went further, accusing Mamdani of stoking antisemitic tension in the city while failing at basic mayoral duties like keeping the streets calm during high-profile visits.

The clash traces back to Mamdani's mayoral campaign, when the Democratic socialist pledged to pursue Netanyahu's arrest under an outstanding International Criminal Court warrant tied to alleged war crimes in Gaza. Since taking office, Mamdani has repeated the threat multiple times, even after conceding that New York City has no independent authority to detain a foreign head of state, and has since shifted his push toward pressuring the federal government to act instead. Danon and other Israeli officials have pointed to Mamdani's history of calling Netanyahu a war criminal and accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza as evidence of a broader hostility they say borders on antisemitism. With Netanyahu now just days from touching down in New York, the war of words between the mayor's office and Israel's UN mission shows no sign of cooling, setting the stage for a tense and heavily watched visit.